Dr Hill was wrong about the possibility of there being a hundred cases of the Red Death by morning.
There were one hundred and fifty.
Seven people were dead, all of them over the age of sixty.
Captain Smith declared that Level Five, on which the small hospital was situated, be quarantined. Passengers who had cabins on that level had to move.
Jimmy and Claire managed just a few hours' sleep — it had taken longer than they thought to distribute the papers, despite hiring six kids from the amusement arcade — and it was past two in the morning before they were finished. Then they had to be up early again to start work on the next edition. They didn't mind.
They met for breakfast in the buffet restaurant on Level Eleven, and it was there that Ty Warner found them. He stood rather sheepishly facing Jimmy. He unfolded a copy of the Times from a pocket on the leg of his shorts.
'You didn't call me gay,' he said.
'Nope,' said Jimmy.
'The photo turned out good.' Claire smiled round at him. He went on, 'About twenty people have said hello to me this morning. They all know I'm Passenger of the Day. My momma collected up all the copies she could find, she's gonna take them home to show the rest of the family. If she gets better. She has that thing. The bug.' Claire made room for him to sit down. 'Last night she was fine, but woke up early this morning real sick, throwing up, big red smudges on her arm. They took her upstairs. Won't let me see her. Won't let anyone up. Say the whole place is in quarantine. I'm real worried about her.'
They sat quietly for a little bit. Then Jimmy said, 'If you think I'm giving you your T-shirt back because I feel sorry for you, you've another thing coming.'
Ty looked a little confused. 'I didn't mention the T-shirt. You can keep the T-shirt.'
Claire put a hand on his arm. 'Don't worry about him, it's just his sense of humour. Besides, it doesn't need giving back, it needs a wash.'
'It's all I have,' Jimmy protested, sniffing at himself. 'And it's not that bad.'
Claire raised an eyebrow. 'Oh yeah?'
'I want to see my momma,' Ty said. 'I don't think putting all the sick people in one place is going to stop this thing spreading. Sure we all been mixing since we got on this boat.'
'It's not a boat,' said Jimmy
'What?' asked Ty.
'It's a ship. Scoop says a boat's what you get on to when your ship is sinking.'
'Don't see that it matters,' said Ty. 'All I want to do is go see my momma.'
Claire gave his arm a squeeze. 'It's too dangerous.'
Ty shook his head. 'If I was going to get it, I would have it right now. I was with my momma all night, we breath in the same air, don't we? And I'm sitting here with you, so if I have it, maybe you have it, maybe we all have it, just some it hits, some it don't. I don't want her lying on some bed, nobody looking after her.'
'What about your dad?'
'He says he isn't going near her. They fight a lot. He says if she sees him she'll surely breathe all over him out of badness. So there's only me.'
Claire looked at Jimmy. 'He has a point, you know. We all breathe the same air. If we're going to get it, we're going to get it — nothing can be done. We should help him get to see his mum.'
'We?'
'This is my dad's ship, I know where all the service elevators are. We could possibly bypass whatever security they have on the main elevators. I'd like to try. And you stole his T-shirt, so you owe him.'
'You think that's equal to going up there? That's mental! They're all dying!' He suddenly realized what he'd said and looked apologetically across at Ty. 'I mean — I'm sure your mum will be fine . . . but still, you know what I mean. And anyway, we've a newspaper to run, and even if we found out anything useful up there, we wouldn't be allowed to use it, so what's the point?'
'You're just chicken,' said Claire.
'Absolutely,' said Jimmy.
***
They left him sitting there. He finished his bacon and got some more. He ate sausages and pancakes covered in maple syrup.
Chicken!
After what I've done?
He walked out of the restaurant and along to the newspaper office. But when he tried to go on-line to survey the morning's news the computer kept telling him that the line was busy. So he left that for a while and rifled through a large box of pamphlets and brochures Scoop had left behind, looking for some information on the Titanic's first port of call, the city of San Juan in Puerto Rico, which would have to be profiled in detail in that night's edition of the paper.
He found it quickly enough, then sat at his computer and began trying to compose an article.
Chicken!
Who did she think she was? What had she ever done that was brave? She hadn't stowed away — twice. Or outwitted all those search parties. And who came up with the idea of e-mailing a photo from her camera, thus saving their lives? And she was calling him chicken? All she'd ever done in her spoiled little life was huff.
Jimmy tried to concentrate on Puerto Rico. He wrote about it being discovered five hundred years ago by Christopher Columbus. How it became a Spanish colony, with the local Indian tribes either being wiped out or decimated. In the nineteenth century it had struggled for independence as its population grew and agriculture flourished, with the coffee bean becoming its most important product. After the Spanish American War and the Treaty of Paris was signed the island was ceded to the United States, with Puerto Ricans being granted American citizenship.
It was extremely boring.
Chicken!
Right — that was it. He wasn't prepared to just be a desk jockey. He was sure she wasn't the slightest bit concerned about Ty, she was just nosey. She always wanted precisely what she wasn't allowed. And it didn't matter if that meant putting her life and Ty's in danger by smuggling him into the plague zone. Jimmy pushed back from the desk. He was going to yank Claire out of there and tell her exactly how much of a fool she was being.
***
The smell got him first.
Jimmy had with him a small flannel soaked in water, which he held over his nose and mouth, but it didn't do much good. He had never seen a dead body, or smelled one, for that matter. But somehow he knew what the stench was.
It was . . . revolting.
The cabins on either side of the corridor were packed full of the sick and dying. Nurses were doing their best to cope, but it was clear that there were just too many. The hundred and fifty cases Ty had mentioned at breakfast seemed to have quadrupled.
'Jimmy!'
Dr Hill's hair was plastered to his head and his white doctor's coat was heavily stained.
'What're you doing here, Jimmy? It isn't safe!'
'Looking for Claire.'
Dr Hill rubbed at his brow, then looked about him. He appeared to be a little confused. 'She was here . . . with another boy — his mum died. And then his dad did as well.'
'His. . .?'
'Had some sort of convulsion. Don't know if it was the Red Death or not. Not sure where they went . . .' He shook his head and sighed. 'We don't know anything about this damn virus, Jimmy, I don't know whether I'm doing any good at all up here.'
Jimmy looked back along the corridor. 'How many are there?'
'I don't know. I don't even want to think about it. All I know is, it's getting worse, every hour. Now for goodness' sake, get out of here before you catch it as well.'
Jimmy didn't need to be told twice.
***
He found them on the fifteenth. Ty was leaning against the rail, staring out to sea. Claire sat on a sunbed behind him. She had tears in her eyes. 'Jimmy . . .
'I heard.'
She glanced up at Ty, then lowered her voice. 'He came on a cruise with his mum and dad, and two days later they're both dead.'
'It's horrible,' said Jimmy, 'but what can we do?'
'Adopt him,' said Claire.